Lamp light diffuser

2024-Mar-20, Wednesday 12:30 pm
[personal profile] chebe
My office/workshop is not meant to be a photography set. The lighting isn't suited to product beauty shots, yet photos still happen in here. Part of this is that I'm more photosensitive than your average maker and will happily work away in my dark cave. But I want better photos, so I decided to try and improve the lighting situation without splashing out hundreds on professional gear (that won't fit in here anyway).

DIY Light Diffuser has a few options I'd like to try, but first things first.

My primary work light is a directional desk lamp with a full daylight (6500K) bulb fitted. (I can't find this bulb online so it may not exist anymore. Similar to this, but 6500K, not 2700K.) This is great for seeing true colours, as well as unpicking black on black, but leads to very harsh shadows in photos.

Luckily it seems I'm not alone, because someone already made a model for my lamp; Ikea Tertial diffuser holder. You print the two rings, and sandwich circles of greaseproof paper (it's made for ovens, it'll be okay with the heat) between them, then it just clips around the lip on the lampshade. I imported the models into 3D Builder, exported .stls, and then printed in PETG. I didn't have any issues with scaling (as is mentioned in the description), it fits lovely. As this diffusion is very close to the light source it is less effective than other methods, but does still have a noticeable effect.


Two black 3d printed rings side by side on a wooden surface. The ring on the right has four latches sticking up.

Printed front cover and base rings
Photo by [personal profile] chebe




Two black 3d printed rings set into each other, with two layers of greaseproof paper sandwiched between them, on a wooden surface

Diffusion ring assembled
Photo by [personal profile] chebe




Two black 3d printed rings set into each other, with two layers of greaseproof paper sandwiched between them, fitted to a silver Ikea Tertial lamp shade

Diffusion ring fitted to lamp
Photo by [personal profile] chebe




Photo of a black pop-socket phone holder, on a wooden surface, casting a sharp shadow

Before
Photo by [personal profile] chebe




Photo of a black pop-socket phone holder, on a wooden surface, casting a wider more diffuse shadow

After
Photo by [personal profile] chebe